"The first victory we can claim is that our hearts are free of hatred. Hence we say to those who persecute us and who try to dominate us: ‘You are my brother. I do not hate you, but you are not going to dominate me by fear. I do not wish to impose my truth, nor do I wish you to impose yours on me. We are going to seek the truth together’. THIS IS THE LIBERATION WHICH WE ARE PROCLAIMING."
Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas (2002)

Monday, July 15, 2013

Murdered human rights defender Natalia Estemirova: Four years later her killers are still free

There may be times
when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a
time when we fail to protest. - Elie Wiesel

Four years later and her killers still remain at large. The government has now claimed in 2013 that it has ascertained the motive and that the murder probe was never suspended. "Investigators believe the crime was committed in connection with
Estemirova's professional activity and with the view of unsettling the
situation in Ingushetia and Chechnya."

Today protests are being held around the world in her memory and in France, the Paris based group ACAT, Amnesty International, Comité Tchétchénie,
Le Convoi Syndical, l’Union des Electeurs russes, FIDH, Reporters
Without Borders, and Russie-Libértes have called for a joint protest at “Place Igor Stravinsky (Beauborg)" in Paris at 6:30pm.

Natalia Estemirova was one of the leading researchers in the Grozny office of the Russian human rights organization Memorial.
Since 2000 she had exposed numerous human rights violations committed
during the second Chechen conflict and documented extrajudicial
executions, enforced disappearances, torture and other human rights
violations committed by law-enforcement agencies and government
officials in post-conflict Chechnya. She was fighting injustice and
refused to leave the Republic despite the criticism and frequent
threats she received from Chechen officials.

ChechnyaI would like to tell you about a woman of whose life and death, I believe, the people must know.Her
name was Zura Bitieva. She lived in a small Chechen village. During
‘95-‘96, when the Russian army occupied Chechnya, she was actively
involved in anti-war protests. She was not afraid of the fatal
consequences. In 1999, the Russian army again invaded Chechnya, and in
February 2000 she and her son Idris, were taken into the Chernokozov
prison by a Russian soldier. Conditions of this prison were appalling in
their brutality. Torture, killing, assault and human degradation were
all part of this institution.

Zura
was a small, aged and very sick woman. But her soul and the strength
of her spirit, withstood the threats and beating of her captors. She
defended other inmates in prison, with this strength. Zura went on
hunger strike. She was released in a very ill condition. Her friends
helped her go to Turkey. But once her health was slightly better, she
went back to Chechnya, and began collecting evidence of crimes
committed by the Russian soldiers and militia against the peaceful
citizens of Chechnya. This evidence she submitted to UN and
organizations for human rights. In the middle of a spring night 2003,
her house was broken into by camouflaged and masked men. These men were
part of the Russian forces. They killed her, her son Idris, her husband
and her brother. Her one year-old grandson was gagged and left in a
puddle of blood. Only her other son, escaped death by hiding in time.

Half a year passed, and the crime has still not been investigated.

Exactly
two years before this event, Islamic fundamentalists in conjunction
with the Russian forces, mortally wounded human rights defender Viktor
Popkov. Still, the killers have not been brought to justice, even
though this is quite possible.

In
spring this year, men in camouflage and masks kidnapped a defender
Imran Ezhiev. The press raised a storm, and after a few days Imran was
dropped and left on a dirt road. To this day, he does not know where he
had been, as he was gagged and cuffed. But he does know that his
kidnappers were part of the Russian forces. He was saved by the press
outcry.

I suggest that
whenever a human rights defender is suffering, we should hold massive
press gatherings to free the defender and lead proper investigations
into their arrests. I also think that the Frontline website
should have current and detailed information and news of human rights
defenders – to be discussed by participants of this conference.

We owe it to Natalia and to human rights defenders in Russia and around the world that her killers be brought to justice. Other journalists continue to be killed with impunity in Russia. On July 9, 2013 Akhmednabi Akhmednabiev, a journalist whose work was critical of local authorities was shot and killed in Degestan. We maybe powerless to prevent these injustices but we must never stop denouncing them.